Monday, May 01, 2006

Chapche (Jap-Chaye) - Korean Rice Noodles



After making all that Sueann-Friendly soy sauce I decided to make Chapche. These rice noodles are different than the Thai kind and can be found in the Asian (Oriental- if you still say this) store. When my mother would make this, I would imagine we were eating worms! But unlike other kids, I wasn't grossed out, but found this thought entertaining. I am a Free-Bird cook. Meaning, I follow the basic structure of a recipe but add ingredients I have at home. For this Chapche I put in two jalepenos for some spice and left out many veggies because...they weren't in my fridge.
I was told that this is normally a side dish - Wha??? This is a one dish meal to me!


In a large pot:
Korean Style rice noodles - boil in water for about 5 minutes then eat one to see if it is cooked through. Unlike dry pasta, these cook fast. If you boil them too long they lose their texture and taste like paste. Run under cold water and grab some scissors because these noodles are long! I pretend I'm attacking an alien creature (of coarse it attacked me first) and I stab and cut in many directions!

Take the same pot and FRY these with some soy free oil - DO NOT fry in sesame seed oil because it has a low heat...fat something... and will burn: Tastes awful.


Thinly sliced beef
Shredded carrots
Shredded green pepper (not too much-kinda overpowering)
One thinly sliced onion
Now add these towards the end of your frying.
Shredded Shitaki mushrooms (or Button mushrooms - or canned)
Leaf spinach (do yourself a favor and buy frozen-defrost before adding to pan)
Now add the sauce to the pot and turn the HEAT OFF (Just enough heat to lightly fry noodles -be careful because they stick to the pot!) then mix.


1/2C Sueann Friendly Soy Sauce
2 T sesame oil
3 T Brown Sugar (or a little less of white sugar if you are out of brown)
Garlic - I use about 1 T granulated garlic but do this to your taste - not too much though!
Black pepper
I usually add a little more sugar until you get a nice balance of sweet and salty. You are going for a terkiyaki flavor. Mmmm worms!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going out for Korean food for lunch. This site is making me hungry!
Nikki

Sueann Ramella said...

I thought about you when I posted this. I thought, she is going to be so tired of this noodle dish! But I was wrong! :) Miss you!

Anonymous said...

I talked one of my friends into going with me and then subjected her to the mungbean noodles. She got a little wide-eyed when they came but settled down once she tasted it:)
Nikki